Proud Momma and Daddy

[Heidi & Milton]

On Tuesday, Milt and I visited the dog park together, like usual.  With the hot
summer weather blowing in, rather than walking to the grassy part of the park,
Milt has been tugging and yanking to run to the swimming portion.  It really is
rather nice that the park is located right on a lake.

To clarify, Milton
absolutely loves water.  He is happiest when wet, which turns into muddy.  The
only thing is he does not like to swim!  Milt prefers to wade about and
keep all four paws firmly on the ground.  I have always blamed myself that he is
not a natural born swimmer because when we drove up to my family's home in New
York last summer, I think I was too forceful in my attempts to get him to swim. 
In hindsight, I should have gradually walked our goldendoodle, who should
instinctively like the water due to his mix, slowly into the lake.  Instead, I
jumped in at the end of the dock, Milton was handed down to me, and I gently
placed him in the water.  This was terrifying to him, no matter how soothing and
calming we tried to act.  Hence, Milt has always preferred to stay wet in the
shallows.

Despite the heat, this Tuesday was an odd day at the dog park
because it seemed rather deserted.  Sometimes, if it is very hot, people and
their dogs prefer to stay home, so the water entry only had one or two dogs over
there, and they left soon after we arrived.  Milton was left with no playmates,
but me!  I continued throwing Milt a tennis ball in the shallows, his
preference, and I accidentally tossed it a bit too far.  I thought, drat,
that ball is lost; Milt will never go past his head to retrieve it, but he did. 
Next, I threw it a little bit further, and once again Milton swam out to get
it.  Then I tried chunking the the ball really far, and Milt paddled and kicked
all the way to grab that ball and back.  I cannot even describe how proud I was
of our boy!  -- http://youtu.be/Da7QX1ckyt8

I can now say without hesitation that Milton the Goldendoodle is officially a
water dog!  After his first few initial swims out, he just kept on going.  He is
all up to speed now with all of his other water doggie friends.  Although,
compared to the other dogs that were swimming (mainly Labs), Milt certainly
lumbers around a bit more, which I attribute to all that fur weighting him
down.  I think with time his stroke will even out more though.

As for
Momma and Daddy?  We are proud as peaches of our boy.  I have been grinning for
the past two days and continuously watching the many, many snippets of video
that I took.  It is so nice to have another swimmer in the family.  Summer just
got a whole lot more interesting...!

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Way to go Milt!

[Karen and Ruston]

Wow, congrats to Milt. I have yet to get Ruston to Lake Michigan this spring. I hope to get her to swim this summer. She loved her little pool last year but only waded in the lake. I bought a bigger plastic pool for this year. Way to go Milt!

[Bonnie and Kona]

Oh so fun! Milt looks great in the water. Sounds like the best exercise, too!

[Joanna, Zoe & Bender]

WOW!!! what a swim!!!  I love how he has a buddy swimming with him! 

my dogs have yet to swim...Bender avoids pools of water like the plague and Zoe only jumps around in it because she likes the splashing  :(

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Congrats to Milt!   I love the video:)

[Diane, Baker & Oskar]

cute video!  he's got it !!

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

Yeah Milt !!!!

[Pat and Traveler]

Way to go, Milt!!  Trav still doesn't know that he's a water dog.  lol

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

That's great!  Milt looked like a pro!  Can't wait for warm weather here.